Behaviour and Physiology Research Lab

What do we do?

The Behaviour and Physiology Research Group (BPRG), led by Steve Simpson, studies the neural, physiological, ecological and evolutionary bases of animal behaviour. The group's emphasis is "bottom-up", in that we are especially concerned with the way in which lower-level processes lead to higher level outcomes. Our approach focuses on the behaviour of individual organisms and involves an interplay between theory and experiment. Most of our experimental work is on insects, although recent work has examined fish, birds and mammals - including humans. Techniques employed include the quantitative analysis of behaviour, neurophysiology, metabolic and digestive physiology, mathematical modelling, computer simulations and laboratory selection experiments.